Thursday, July 12, 2012

It's time to get busy crafting with your kids again. This month our challenge is to make something with a summer food theme. Here is a photo of what the girls made for you.

All it took was a couple simple cirlces cut with my Cricut and they could do the rest. How easy is that! Below is another example from a junior member of the Bugaboo design team. Looks like we both think of watermelon when we think of summer!

Scrappy daughter from the Bugaboo Design team

Not it's your turn. Any creation having to do with a summer food. Blog about it and then link up here. You could win 7 free images from our generous sponsor, Bugaboo Digi Stamps.

Monday, July 9, 2012

It's summer time and I've had some stress free time to really think about my Etsy shop. With our recent move, new craft space, and increased sales I really wanted to get everything organized before school started again and I had more responsibilities on my plate.

I contacted a Becca over at Jumping Jax Designs. She makes printable invitations as well as blog design and business branding. With her help, patience, and expertise we created the new logos, banner, and business items for Jilly Bear Designs! Before I show you her wonderful work I wanted to tell you a little about the name.

My youngest daughter (3) is named Jillian. It had gotten shortened to Jilly pretty much immediately and then soon I was calling her "my little Jilly Bear." That has been my pet name for her for the last 3 years and it just seemed logical since most of my designs are kid and baby oriented that the name would fit for my shop.

Jilly is a Wizard of Oz (or if she pronounces it "Lizard of Boz") fanatic. If she's not falling to the ground "melting" she's prancing around the house singing "we're off to see the Wizard." We are currently decorating her new room. The Owls have flown out the window (to my sorrow) and are being replaced with blue gingham, poppies, scarecrows, tinmen and Dorothy's. Anyway... you get the picture. I have Oz on the brain.

So in her honor the inspiration behind the new logos and banner are Dorothy related. Without any further delay why don't you take a look and see for yourself.

Here's the Etsy banner:

Shop logos:

We are still working on the business cards and mailing labels, but I'm very please with what she has done so far.

Another change in store is packaging. I've finally had a little time to try different bags and packaging. In addition to making the packages adorable and very attractive to buyers, I've actually designed some more tags for my own shop.

Here are a few of my favorites:

I'm still working on a few more things in the shop, so keep watching for more changes. So far I'm really liking how things are looking. It has been a productive summer so far!

Somehow over the last couple of days I've been on top of things. I've actually found myself with a little time to try out some new stamp sets and themes I've been want to do for a while. Here's a little of what I've been up to.

The first two are baby cards. I had this paper combination on the table from an invitation design and liked it so much I ended up making two more cards.

This little sweet pea card was from a Papertrey Ink stamp set that was on my Christmas list. I hadn't really gotten a change to play with it. I ended up paperpiecing the pea pod because I didn't like the plain stamped look. I thnk it worked out pretty good that way.

The last one is my current favorite, but at the moment that doesn't mean much. My favorite tends to change every day. LOL! Anyway The sentiment is a combination of 2 stamps. Sweet Smile was a stamp from Close to My Heart that I just bought off Ebay. The Summer was part of a Papertrey Ink sentiment. I had to do a little piecing to get the phrase together, but I think it fits the card perfectly. Watermelon slices are definitely summer smiles.

About Me

My name is Sammie and I am a paper crafter. I have a very tolerant husband who doesn't complain about bits of paper all over the house. I also have three daughters who are always ready to "help" on any project.
I have been scrapbooking for about 15 years and started card making in 2010. I have an Etsy shop where I sell my cards and invitations.